Momentum is good and bad for Buffs

Momentum has been an issue for Colorado, helping on a neutral site against its rival in Week 1 and hurting on the road against a future Pac-10 opponent in Week 2.

"I think we&rsquo;re just learning," Buffaloes coach Dan Hawkins said. "We certainly addressed that and talked about that. We talk to our guys about that all the time, that bad things are going to happen and you&rsquo;re going to have to work your way through. And how all that works."

Colorado hosts Hawaii this weekend with hopes of avoiding similar results after last week's loss to California, where the Buffaloes fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and 31-0 by halftime.

"It&rsquo;s like in any job, you have a bad day, you don&rsquo;t just quit," said senior receiver Scotty McKnight. "You come back the next day and try to have a better day. That&rsquo;s what we&rsquo;re trying to do."

McKnight was pleased with the energy in Tuesday's practice -- the first since the loss -- but both he and Hawkins know the team has to prevent the problems that led to Saturday's blowout loss. Most importantly, it would seem, is preventing those problems from happening early on.

"Drop one ball it just stays in your mind. If it&rsquo;s in your mind, you&rsquo;re probably going to drop another ball," said McKnight, who stretched his streak of games with at least one reception to 39 on Saturday. "You&rsquo;ve just got to move on."

Hawkins was pleased with the team's progress in the second half, but facing a 31-0 halftime deficit meant those positive steps did nothing to influence the game's outcome.

One second-quarter drive stretched 17 plays and 36 yards for the Buffaloes but ended with a missed field goal.

Meanwhile, California's first three scoring drives started on Colorado's 19, 31 and 21-yard lines, the final two courtesy of Tyler Hansen turnovers.

"We always work on those situations. We put them in bad spots, we put them in good situations. Everybody has situational categories that you work on," Hawkins said. "We&rsquo;ve just got to continue to rep it."